Due to the dramatic reduction of state revenues caused by COVID-19, the Office of Financial Aid is still waiting for notification from New York State as to whether Excelsior awards may be reduced and/or prioritized. This mainly affects incoming freshman’s award status.
The Excelsior scholarship is offered by the state of New York for families who are in the middle-income bracket. This defines families who don’t qualify for tuition assistance through the state or Pell grants from the federal government.
According to the Director of Financial Aid Susan Romano, students who have already applied for and are being granted the Excelsior scholarship will still receive their money, but for students applying for the first time, the process has been “frustrating” to navigate.
“We saw the first signs … that there might be something going when they didn’t open the application,” Romano said. “We did inform our new students that we were waiting to hear more. And then before you knew it, the application opened. It was for a very short period of time.”
Although the application did open and students were able to apply, qualifying students still haven’t been awarded their money, according to Romano.
The Office of Financial Aid sent out an email on Sept. 6 to inform students and families that have applied for the Excelsior scholarship that they have two options. First, families can choose to pay the balance in full and be reimbursed for any excess payment. The second option is families can choose to enroll in a Geneseo payment plan and be reimbursed accordingly if the scholarship is awarded in regard to remaining installments.
A mother of an incoming freshman to the SUNY system expressed her frustration in a Facebook comment in the page “SUNY Geneseo Class of 2024 – Parents.” She explained that “[her] son applied for both STEM and Excelsior … We had a call with a NY State Higher Education [representative] last week … and he said there is no certainty that either scholarship [Excelsior or Pell] will be funded this year for new students.”
In the meantime, while trying to navigate this unprecedented issue, Romano said she and her office are working with their students as best they can.
“We went ahead and estimated an award in their financial aid package for Excelsior, but we didn’t extend credit to the fall bill, with the uncertainty of the award being honored,” Romano said. “Students are being asked to pay the tuition amount in full, with the possibility of being refunded later, but there is, unfortunately, no guarantee that the funds will be awarded … We are really just waiting for further instruction on behalf of the state.”